About the spinning Komodo image

• Object photography
• The Komodo JavaScript
• Parameters to the JavaScript

Object photography

The spinning Komodo is an example of what's called Object Photography.  I have done only two examples of this.  You may be interested in the first one I made, a teapot, at http://www.smokycity.com/jstrait/?teapot.htm .

For an (extremely brief) introduction to object photography, see Object Photography at the How Do I Do That? section of ShortCourses.com.

There are fancy tools out there for object photography such as the Kaidan turntable and Quicktime VR Authoring Studio (both mentioned in the Short Course).

Note that The Panorama Factory does not actually support creation of object movies.  Maybe someday it will or there will be another Smoky City product for developing object movies.

It's possible to use lower-tech tools.  For the teapot, I used a plastic lazy susan turntable (designed for canned goods in a deep kitchen
cupboard -- probably about $10 at your local kitchen store).  I made evenly spaced marks on the edge of the turntable so I could index it in roughly equal steps.  For Komodo, I constructed my own turntable with click stops at 9 degree steps (40 positions in all).

Good, consistent lighting is critical for object photography.  The teapot suffers greatly from inconsistent lighting.  Komodo also, but less so.  I did them both with available light.  If I were going to make more, I would try to learn about studio lighting -- e.g. flash, reflectors, fill cards, etc.

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The Komodo JavaScript

The Komodo web page is build entirely with JavaScript.  You are welcome to download the JavaScript and use it on your own web page.  If you do, I would like you to add a link to The Panorama Factory website.

To use the Komodo JavaScript:

1. Download the Komodo JavaScript:

2. Save the file as PFObj.js and place it in the same directory as your html file.
3. Read the instructions inside PFObj.js for how to use the script.
4. Read the html on this page which shows the object movie without distractions like The Panorama Factory navigation bar.

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Parameters to the JavaScript

The Komodo JavaScript has parameters that permit you to customize its behavior.   Read the instructions inside PFObj.js for descriptions of the parameters.  Try the buttons on this page to experiment with different values for some of the parameters.

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Revised: January 16, 2011

© 1999-2011 Smoky City Design, LLC and John Strait